BRITAIN: Tony Blair and armed forces minister Adam Ingram are facing personal electoral challenges by parents of two British servicemen killed in the Iraq war.
Reg Keys (52), father of a royal military policeman killed in Iraq, promised to "tell the truth" yesterday as he launched his campaign to unseat Mr Blair in his Sedgefield constituency. Meanwhile in Scotland, Rose Gentle appealed to other anti-war candidates to stand aside in favour of her campaign against Mr Ingram in East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow.
Mrs Gentle's son, Pte Gordon Gentle, was killed by a roadside bomb just three weeks after completing his training with the Royal Highland Fusiliers. Since his death Mrs Gentle has campaigned against what she describes as "an illegal and unjustifiable war" and repeatedly called on Mr Blair to withdraw British troops.
Lance Cpl Tom Keys (20), was one of the six military policemen killed by an Iraqi mob as they manned a police station in Al Majar Al Kabir in 2003. Mr Keys accuses Mr Blair of misleading parliament over the reasons for going to war with the claim that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
He said his son believed what he was told and went off to serve his country with head held high: "But the prime minister misled the country and Tom and 84 other soldiers who had their oath of allegiance betrayed and came home in coffins having died for a lie."